More than 7 million people joined the virtual minute of silence on May 9th.

On the day of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, users of the VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks could join the minute of silence online and honor the memory of the heroes who accomplished the immortal feat. More than 7 million people took part in the large-scale special project on May 9.

Among the participants of the action were famous artists, musicians and bloggers: Azamat Musagaliev, Olga Buzova, Nikolai Baskov, Nastasia Samburskaya, Julia Gavrilina, Anna Pokrov, Slava Booster, Milana Nekrasova and others.

On Victory Day, social media users were invited to join a virtual minute of silence. After switching to the mini-application, the sound of a metronome started in it, and everyone could honor the memory of those who fought for Victory.

"Victory Day is one of the most important holidays that connects millions of Russians. We wanted to hold the largest minute of memory online to unite users from all over Russia, to help them feel involved in preserving the memory of the heroes and their feat, which gave us the opportunity to live, dream and create our own future," said Zoya Novikova, VK's Deputy Senior Vice President for Special Projects.

It is reported that on the eve of Victory Day, VKontakte has prepared online and offline projects so that users can honor the memory of the dead and share the stories of their families. This year, for the first time, the company launched the Blue Handkerchief 80 campaign. The online project was launched by Anna Danilova, President of the Russian Earth Charitable Foundation. Popular authors and famous people presented photos of their female relatives who lived during the war. Also, by Victory Day, mirror steles from the social network appeared in 10 Russian cities.

Everyone and everyone: Russia celebrates the anniversary of the Great Victory

In dozens of regions, actions in honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War were held in a face-to-face format.

On May 9, all visitors to the Victory Museum in Moscow received a copy of the newspaper Izvestia dated May 9, 1945. The text of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany and the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declaring May 9 Victory Day were published on the front page of the newspaper.